Nothing is certain. A caesura is a pause. It usually signifies something important or that a change is taking place. Our lives can be measured by the caesuras that occur. How we handle ourselves in these times defines who we are. I'm trying my best to handle things and this blog is my documentation.

August 29, 2008

That particular phrase, with a vengeance means in an extreme or intense manner. I'll say. The extremity of your behavior is due to the fact that you awoke at 4:30 am. This is absolutely not appreciated in the least by your father and me. By.The.Way. The intensity is, well, astounding. There is absolutely no question whatsoever that you are AWAKE.

I am fairly certain that I foreshadowed this early morning activity by gasp! preparing the coffee pot last night. I thought that I was just going to have an easier time of it at oh, say 7:00...but you'll show me to expect anything from someone who is still only zero.

Lookee - over there! Surely you are talking about someone other than me!

Good thing we cleared up the fact that I am Running on Fumes already.

To be fair, I will point out that the night before you slept from 10:40 pm until 6:20 am. That, I must say, was greatly appreciated by yours truly. When you did finally get up, you ate like you were expiring right there on the spot and then we went into the living room to do this:

You are so very happy in the morning. You smile at me, talk to me, and even pose for photos. I remember when the camera was a thing of intrigue. It wasn't even a whole month ago that the camera elicited looks from you like this:

What is that thing and what has it done with my mother?!?

In fact, that photograph is from the very beginning of August, almost exactly one month ago. How you have changed in that short month. As you will very soon discover, I am a photo-happy person. I take a lot of them and you shall be one of my favorite subjects. I am so very glad of that because otherwise I wouldn't even see the changes you go through in such a short amount of time. It surprises me when I look back through the photos that I have taken and realize how different you are already. You are definitely a growing girl!

You have become incredibly long this month. This makes things interesting when attempting to feed you in the rocking chair since you also love to kick your feet. If you are sleepy-eating at night, this is no big thing, but when you are awake, watch out! You'll push your feet on the arm of the chair and pop right off of me. Oh, how offended you are then. How dare I take away the food! When you are expiring!

The challenges of motherhood that no one bothers to mention...

Your length has also made soothing you somewhat challenging. Or it did there for a while. You remember, back when you still had eyes for your pacifier? Oh, how the great have fallen. Supporting your body and legs while holding your pacifier in required three arms. Neither of us are so blessed, and Cooper is not much help no matter how much he'd like to be. We had a few days of extreme malcontent due to your length and our lack of extremities.

Nowadays, that paci? It has been banished. It sits forlornly, forgotten, somewhere in our bedroom. Yup, somewhere. I used to know where that thing was at all times. I kept it with me, in fact. Now? Well, you much prefer to attempt this:

There are times when you manage to get that thumb in there just right and away you go. Other times, you are just playing around with it, chewing it, poking it with your tongue. Occasionally you just get a couple of fingers in there. Whenever that happens, you make a face like we fed you something yucky and spit them out.

Then there are the times when you get the thumb in the mouth and a finger in your nose at the same time.

Show-off.

It was a tad bit uncomfortable for you the first time since you were trying to shove your thumb as far into your mouth as possible...which resulted in your finger going up, up, up. Touching your brain must not have been on the agenda, because you pulled them both out and looked at me like I had done something to you.

Your Guga was here for two weeks at the beginning of the month. Oh, how you enjoyed that. You really began "talking" with her. She would hold you and speak to you about your day and you would just tell her all sorts of things. We have no idea what, exactly, but boy did you talk.

Last month I mentioned that you know your sounds come from your mouth and if I touch it you'll talk. Well, the connection you have made is even stronger this month since you are more likely to talk if you have something in your mouth. In go the hands, out come sounds. The sounds are increasing in variety, frequency, and sometimes volume. Your favorite is still "ooohhhh". It always makes you smile.

Your Aunt and Uncle, M&M are visiting this weekend. We are hoping that we will get to watch some Hokie football with them. One thing is or certain: you are ready to cheer.

I believe that you will love your Aunt's hair and voice because you love looking at long hair and she has a great singing voice - I am sure we can convince her to sing you something. Maybe you'll join in. I think that you will love looking at your Uncle because, unless things have changed, he has facial hair. Oohhhh, Ahhhh, facial hair. I can't wait to see your face when you meet them. It will probably look something like this:

This is the face you make whenever you are thinking. I have heard that you get it from me. You do it every time you encounter something or someone new. Your Guga and I took you out to my former workplace while she was here and this is how you chose to greet everyone. Then you fell asleep. As babies are wont to do.

The good news is that for all the times that you are oh so serious, there are also the times that you are happy. In fact, this month you have been learning to laugh. You have somewhat mastered the cough, and you are working on laughing. It all started with a game of patty-cake:

I know I mentioned that you are happy with sucking on your hands, but it is so much more than that. This month you discovered them. We hit your hands together for patty-cake and something clicked. You knew that those were your hands and holy smokes they were touching each other! When you "laugh" you lift your head back a bit, your eyes get big and you look up and away. Your mouth opens really wide and there's this pause while you process your happiness and excitement. Then, finally, out comes a cough-y but joyful sound.

Ever since that day, you've been using your hands to explore. Mostly you explore one hand with the other, even when eating, which I must say is interesting. You also, as I mentioned, explore your mouth. We can now place a toy or rattle in your hand and you'll hold onto it for a while. You know that when you move your hand, the object makes noise, and that makes you happy.

A few other things you've learned to do this month include holding yourself up and looking around during tummy-time. You've demonstrated your ability to flop yourself over onto your side when I place you on your belly. You are also fully capable of rolling onto your side from your back while sleeping, so I imagine rolling over is on your agenda in the near future.

In the last two days you've really discovered the mobile on your swing. It is an aquarium swing that has a globe that lights up with water and fish in it. Around the globe is the mobile with four fish that go 'round and 'round. Although you've shown interest in it before, yesterday and today you expressed delight. Almost laughing delight.

I love to watch you discover new things. You express excitement and joy when doing so. You go from slight frustration at an attempt to happiness with success and it is fabulous to watch. I enjoy it when you explore your voice. Your expressions are as varied as the sounds you make. One of my favorite is the one you make when you are getting a little sleepy. There is such a fine line between the sleepy stage and the I need sleep NOW stage, but while you are there, you are precious. It is just one of the many things I love about being your Mom.

As opposed to ice, people. In the winter, they put markers out and drive across the fjords. On the ice. It is a much shorter trip than driving the curvy road that follows the fjord coastline. A much shorter trip on ice. Solid Ice.

No, I've never lived where it gets that cold, as I am sure you can tell. To me, this is a woah! and amazing! idea.

I don't get out much.

They didn't go too far from the city, but he was able to see a bit of the cliffs carved out by the glacier that formed the fjord:

In addition to being fed a very popular (in Norway at least) open-faced raw shrimp sandwich...with a strange mayonnaise on it...which really wasn't very popular, at least with my husband, he and a few others went swimming.

In the deep, cool waters of the fjord.

Apparently, they liked it:

Yes, I know. It was August, the height of summer. It was warm, at least for Norway. The top so many feet of water were warm. Below that, however...brrrrrr. Also: Helloooooo, sexy! Lemme see those muscles!

He went on the trip with all of these people:

Some of them took these photos. Thanks!

Aside from swimming, eating, and your usual frivolity, they saw this amazing boat:

The coast was lined with beautiful trees and many tiny boat houses.

Their trip lasted long enough that they were witnesses to a beautiful sunset:

Towards the end of the evening, this photo was taken:

A result of the camera attempting to function in too-little light...or a result of the day's activities?

We may never know.

Later that evening, Señor CC went out with a few of the guys. They had Oh-so-much-fun together. I am pretty sure shenanigans ensued. So much so that the following morning there may have been a little over-sleeping.

Perhaps.

At one point, one of them asked how Señor CC was doing that morning...as in how was it when he woke up...

And he, in all of his ability-not-to-speak glory declared "I was up like a rocket!"

A rocket?

Indeed.

I'll give you a minute.

Incidentally, those of you who knew Señor CC in his college days are well aware of his propensity to use the word rocket. Rocket-Sled, anyone?

Due to his fabulous choice of words, he is now known by some only as Rocket Man.

I find that nickname superbly appropriate, since he loves the word and we live in Houston. Houston, we have a problem. I mean, could it get any better than that?

As for me, these days I am doing my best, Running on Fumes.

And although this is in large part because of Rootin' Tootin' Cowgirl and Rocket Man, it is not those kind of fumes I am talking about people. Jeepers!

One thing is for sure:

I don't think any of us are going to be up like a rocket any time soon.

August 28, 2008

I have decided that we need new blog names to reflect our current location and situation.

Granted, this one will always be Señorita Clementina to me because, as our Spanish landlords proudly declare: she was made in Spain. Hecho en España, for all of you Spanish speakers out there.

A recent visitor (Hi, Mom!) called her Little Miss Itty Bitty while she was here, and we like that name very much. It is easy to remember, it rolls off the tongue, and it is perfect for now, since she is currently Itty Bitty. With CAPS. Yes, her size shall change soon enough, but until then, I'm sure I'll occasionally refer to her as such. I'll use LMIB for short sometimes, so I hope you're paying attention!

Here is Little Miss Itty Bitty with She Who Named Her, Guga (pronounced like the Georgia Bulldogs mascot name, Uga, but with an extra G at the beginning. So...Guh-gah...NOT Goo-gah, Thank-You-Very-Much!), watching Olympic swimming and gymnastics:

Señor CC and I are going to be using a couple of humorous names, and LMIB needs one of those as well. Therefore, we shall combine her most frequent, innately driven activities with the fact that she was born in Texas.